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March 25, 2005

Bush on the Minnesota School Shootings

President Bush's immediate reaction;


President Bush's reaction after time to reflect;


White House reaction as reported in the Washington Post;

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, in an informal discussion with reporters Tuesday, said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who were killed."

Well I guess that sums it up. This from a President who flew through the night to sign an ill-conceived bill that poked a finger in the eye of Florida State Courts and made a Federal case of what is at best a state matter.

The Washington Post article describes the reaction of the Native American community. And Ronald Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times explains why Bush has been so forth coming on the shooting:

Bush's responses to the Schiavo case and the school shootings track with the preferences of two of his core constituencies.

Conservative Christians pressed Bush to intervene for Schiavo, while the National Rifle Assn. and other gun-owner groups generally look to minimize the relevance of political responses to mass shootings.

That about sums it up.

Update: March 25, 2005 8:53 P.M.

According to an AP article on Yahoo, Bush has called Floyd Jourdain Jr., chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa to express his condolences. This, of course, comes four day after the shootings and it was far from a public statement. The article notes;

Some American Indians have complained that Bush did not respond publicly to the shooting for four days. Just hours after the shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School that left 15 dead, then-President Clinton publicly expressed his condolences.

At least the NRA has responded publicly;

"I'm not saying that that means every teacher should have a gun or not, but what I am saying is we need to look at all the options at what will truly protect the students," the NRA's first vice president, Sandra S. Froman, told The Associated Press.

I sure am glad the Ms Froman is not saying, "every teacher should have a gun." But I'm a little concerned abut what she means by "everything's on the table" in the following;

"No gun law, no policy that you could implement now or that was already implemented, I think, could possibly prevent someone so intent on destruction," she said. "I think everything's on the table as far as looking at what we need to do to make our schools safe for our students."

Also, is it just possible that trigger locks or "smart" guns would have made it considerably harder to shoot anyone including the attacker's grandfather?

Posted by DuaneSmith at March 25, 2005 10:19 AM | Read more on Current Events |

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Comments

It's useful to recall that Bush had the same reaction in regards the tsunami in the Indian Ocean on 26 Dec.

There really is something serious wrong with that person. Seriously, how difficult is it for the head of state to get up and say "it's unfortunate that it happened"?

Posted by: raj at March 30, 2005 06:12 AM

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